Stephen J. Carpenter said
> On Wed, Oct 14, 1998 at 08:12:21AM -0700, Kenneth Scharf wrote:
> > I have an old 386-25 computer with 8m of memory, a 100mb hd, et4000
> > based video card with 1m of display memory. The mb has no cache, and
> > only ISA slots. I would like to use this machine as a networked
> > station tied to my k6-233 acting as a server. I have an acton ne2000
> > clone I can put in the 386.
> >
> > Can I boot linux off the network? Can I put most of the file system
> > on the network (IE the workstation would mount /bin, /usr, /etc from
> > the network and maybe even /host/xxxx. What would be then minimun
> > filesystem that would have to be on the local drive?
> >
>
> Network bootng is easy...
> you could get away with no hard drive and just a boot disk!
> (or as little as a few megav=bytes of disk space)
>
Absolutely! One company (IGEL LLC) has done just that! They have a line of
workstations that have a *minimal* filesystem stored in the ROMS (along with
the kernel) another FS is stored in CMOS (holds /etc stuff). Their minimal
configuration is a 386sx-16 w/ 8MB RAm and no HD. It works!
> I would check out my web page
> http://people.delphi.com/sjc/linux/poor.html
>
> this is the "Poor Man's XTerminal" it is for setting up a diskless
> netbooting XTerminal from a aPC.... it could be adapted for non-X use
> (ie as a network terminal etc)
>
> -Steve
>
> --
> /* -- Stephen Carpenter <sjc@delphi.com> --- <sjc@debian.org>------------ */
> E-mail "Bumper Stickers":
> "A FREE America or a Drug-Free America: You can't have both!"
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>
Almost forgot...IGEL's solution has been on the market for over 3 years now.
One of my clients has had 3 of these systmes in place since Feb. 1996. They
are ZERO administration boxes - I've not done a thing to (or with) them since
they were installed.
There's no reason why anyone can't put together such a solution...
Chuck
--
Chuck Stickelman, Owner E-Mail: <stick@richnet.net>
Practical Network Design Voice: +1-419-529-3841
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